RUI: Collaborative Research: Signals of genetic quality and mate choice

在某些物种中，雄性显示的特征可能会向潜在的雌性配偶提供有关其质量的信息，这些特征的变化会驱使雌性选择或避免这些雄性作为配偶。本研究旨在探讨野生非人灵长类雄性动物的季节性脂肪增加是否与其繁殖成功有关。这个项目推进了我们的非人类灵长类亲属的生理学和社会性进化的知识。该项目还通过向历史上代表性不足的群体（如第一代学生，低收入学生和西班牙裔服务机构的有色人种学生）提供指导研究，促进妇女和代表性不足的少数民族参与STEM。本科生的工作是收集和分析现场数据，并协助传播项目的调查结果。该项目为这些学生提供指导研究和实地经验，独特的培训机会，并支持野生灵长类动物及其栖息地的保护，通过在地方一级的活动，通过教育推广。这项工作提供了新的见解性选择，通过检查交配质量，遗传质量的测量信号之间的关系，并在野生非人类灵长类动物的交配选择。研究团队整合了在现场收集的行为数据和实验室中使用的分子方法，以检查季节性男性脂肪增加的个体差异的生殖后果，并测试这种变化是否与主要组织相容性复合体（MHC）基因的变化有关。具体来说，该项目确定父母与后代的关系，并使用行为和遗传数据来评估男性增肥是否是女性选择的产物，因此是遗传质量的一个标记的诚实指标，或男性的产物-该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识产权进行评估来支持。优点和更广泛的影响审查标准。

In some species, males display traits that may provide information about their quality to potential female mates, and variation in those traits drives females to choose or avoid those males as mates. This study examines whether seasonal fat increase in wild nonhuman primate males is related to their reproductive success. This project advances knowledge about the evolution of physiology and sociality in our nonhuman primate relatives. This project also fosters the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM by providing mentored research to historically underrepresented groups such as first-generation students, low-income students, and students of color at Hispanic Serving Institutions. Undergraduate students work to collect and analyze field data and assist in the dissemination of the project findings. This project provides mentored research and field-based experiences, unique training opportunities for these students, and supports conservation of wild primates and their habitats through activities at the local level through educational outreach.This work provides new insight into sexual selection by examining the relationships among signals of mate quality, a measurement of genetic quality, and mate choice in a wild nonhuman primate. The research team integrate behavioral data collected in the field and molecular methods used in the laboratory to examine the reproductive consequences of individual variation in seasonal male fat increase, and test whether this variation is related to variation in Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) genes. Specifically, this project determines parent-offspring relationships and uses behavioral and genetic data to assess whether male fattening is a product of female choice, and thus an honest indicator of one marker of genetic quality, or a product of male-male competition and therefore decoupled from male MHC diversity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.